Method and apparatus for reference symbol reception

ABSTRACT

To facilitate a selective transmission power boost in a narrowband subsystem of a wideband host carrier, where the narrowband subsystem is preferentially allocated to reduced capability communications devices, both data symbols and dedicated reference symbols are transmitted at a higher power within the narrowband. It is further determined whether to use the dedicated symbols exclusively or in addition to common reference symbols to generate channel estimates.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to telecommunications apparatus, methods,systems and apparatus for transmitting data to and/or receiving datafrom mobile terminals in a wireless communications system. Exampleembodiments of the present technique can provide a facility for varyingthe level of power in selected transmissions.

There is an approximate relationship between coverage within a wirelesscommunications system and the power with which signals are transmittedfrom infrastructure equipment such as base stations (e.g. eNodeBs)and/or network controllers (e.g. RNCs, eNodeBs) to user equipment(UE—i.e. wireless communications devices).

A distance between infrastructure equipment and user equipment (UE) isthe main factor in determining the power in signals received from theinfrastructure equipment at the UE. The further apart the UE andinfrastructure equipment lie, the greater the attenuation a signal willexperience until the point when the attenuated signal has a power levelof the same order as the ambient noise.

A location of a UE can also determine whether the transmission power isadequate. UEs positioned indoors or underground experience significantattenuation: being within a predetermined radial distance ofinfrastructure equipment may be a necessary condition but is not asufficient one.

An anticipated widespread deployment of third and fourth generationcellular networks has led to the parallel development of a class ofdevices and applications which, rather than taking advantage of the highdata rates available, instead take advantage of the robust radiointerface and increasing ubiquity of the coverage area. This parallelclass of devices and applications includes MTC devices and so-calledmachine to machine (M2M) applications, wherein semi-autonomous orautonomous wireless communication devices typically communicate smallamounts of data on a relatively infrequent basis.

Unlike a conventional third or fourth generation terminal device such asa smartphone, an MTC-type terminal is preferably relatively simple andinexpensive: in addition MTC-devices are often deployed in situationsthat do not afford easy access for direct maintenance orreplacement—reliable and efficient operation can be crucial.Furthermore, while the type of functions performed by the MTC-typeterminal (e.g. collecting and reporting back data) do not requireparticularly complex processing to perform, third and fourth generationmobile telecommunication networks typically employ advanced datamodulation techniques (such as 16QAM or 64QAM) on the radio interfacewhich can require more complex and expensive radio transceivers toimplement.

A “virtual carrier” tailored to low capability terminals such as MTCdevices is thus provided within the transmission resources of aconventional OFDM type downlink carrier (i.e. a “host carrier”). Unlikedata transmitted on a conventional OFDM type downlink carrier, datatransmitted on the virtual carrier can be received and decoded withoutneeding to process the full bandwidth of the downlink host OFDM carrier,for at least some part of a subframe. Accordingly, data transmitted onthe virtual carrier can be received and decoded using a reducedcomplexity receiver unit.

As noted above, the nature of MTC devices can lead to their deploymentin locations where radial distance to the infrastructure equipment isnot the only significant factor in attenuation of signals. To improvecoverage for such devices, it would be desirable to provide signallingat a higher transmission power. Coverage can then be extended byensuring that data is transmitted at a sufficiently high power that theMTC device can receive the signal.

To permit channel estimation LTE however relies upon the transmissionpower of certain symbols, known as reference or pilot symbols. Channelestimation refers to the facility for measuring channel characteristics(such as the complex gain) at certain, predetermined, positions in aradio frame (i.e. times and/or frequencies) so that the approximatechannel characteristics at all positions in the frame can be deduced.Channel estimates are in turn used to equalize the effects of noise onall channels.

As the transmission power of the reference signals is one of the channelcharacteristics measured in channel estimation, these reference signalscannot be transmitted at different powers without disrupting the channelestimation and subsequent equalization functions. For those UEs wheregreater attenuation is experienced (such as MTC devices installed incellars), this leads to a situation where the reference symbols areattenuated to such an extent they are inadequate for channel estimation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a methodof receiving data at a communications device from a wirelesscommunications network, the method comprising: receiving data symbolstransmitted from the wireless communications network at thecommunications device via a wireless access interface, the wirelessaccess interface providing a plurality of communications resourceelements across a system bandwidth, which are divided in time into aplurality of time divided radio frames, the wireless access interfaceproviding within the system bandwidth, a first section of communicationsresource elements within a first frequency bandwidth for allocationpreferably to reduced capability communications devices to receivesignals representing the data transmitted by the infrastructureequipment within the first frequency bandwidth forming a virtualcarrier, the reduced capability communications devices each having areceiver bandwidth which is greater than or equal to the first frequencybandwidth but less than the system bandwidth, wherein receiving the datasymbols comprises receiving the data symbols from a first subset ofresource elements in one or more of the radio frames, and receivingcommon reference symbols from a second subset of resource elements ineach radio frame, the common reference symbols having been transmittedwith a first transmission power and the data symbols having beentransmitted via the virtual carrier with a second transmission power,and wherein the method further comprises receiving specific referencesymbols which have been transmitted via the resource elements of saidvirtual carrier at the second transmission power; determining adifference in power between the second transmission power and the firsttransmission power, and if the difference in power substantially exceedsa threshold, generating channel estimates using only the specificreference symbols received from the virtual carrier.

The wireless communications network preferably (i.e. preferentially)allocates the communications resources to the reduced capability devicesin the sense that the reduced capability devices are given priority tothe communications resources of the first second section ofcommunications resources over the allocation of the communicationsresources to communications devices which are able to communicate usingthe full bandwidth of the host carrier of the mobile communicationsnetwork. In one example, the first section of the communicationsresources forming the first virtual carrier is reserved for allocationto the reduced capability devices only, but in other examples, some ofthe communications resources of the first section of the first virtualcarrier may be allocated to the full capability communications devices,if a demand for the communications resources from the reduced capabilitydevices leaves some of the communications resources un-allocated.

Various further aspects and embodiments of the invention are provided inthe accompanying independent and dependent claims.

It will be appreciated that features and aspects of the inventiondescribed above in relation to the first and other aspects of theinvention are equally applicable to, and may be combined with,embodiments of the invention according to the different aspects of theinvention as appropriate, and not just in the specific combinationsdescribed above. Furthermore features of the dependent claims may becombined with features of the independent claims in combinations otherthan those explicitly set out in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way ofexample only with reference to the accompanying drawings, where likeparts are provided with corresponding reference numerals and in which:

FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C illustrate schematically certain functional elementsof a conventional mobile telecommunications network;

FIG. 2 provides a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional LTEradio frame;

FIG. 3 provides a schematic diagram illustrating an example of aconventional LTE downlink radio sub-frame;

FIG. 4 provides a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a LTEdownlink radio sub-frame in which a narrow band virtual carrier has beeninserted;

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate a subframe in which a narrow band virtualcarrier has been inserted at a boosted transmission power;

FIG. 6 provides a schematic diagram illustrating the resource elementsin a pair of resource blocks in a downlink radio sub-frame;

FIGS. 7A and 7B contrast the transmission powers of a plurality ofsubcarriers including subcarriers providing a narrow band virtualcarrier with and without, respectively, power boosting of data symbolswithin the virtual carrier;

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates the relative transmission powers of aplurality of subcarriers including subcarriers providing a narrow bandvirtual carrier with power boosting of data symbols within the virtualcarrier and the insertion of user specific reference symbols;

FIG. 9 shows schematically the operation of infrastructure equipment indetermining whether to insert user specific reference symbols; and

FIG. 10 shows schematically the operation of user equipment, there beinguser specific reference symbols in addition to common reference symbols,in determining whether to use only the user specific reference symbolsor a combination of common and user specific reference symbols togenerate channel estimates.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1A provides a schematic diagram illustrating some basicfunctionality of a conventional mobile telecommunications network, usingfor example Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture.

The network includes a plurality of base stations 104 (only one is shownfor simplicity) connected to a core network 110 (in dotted box). Eachbase station 104 provides a coverage area (i.e. a cell) within whichdata can be communicated to and from terminal devices (also referred toas mobile terminals, MT or User equipment, UE) 102. Data is transmittedfrom base stations 104 to terminal devices 102 within their respectivecoverage areas via a radio downlink 124. Data is transmitted fromterminal devices 102 to the base stations 104 via a radio uplink 122.

The core network 110 routes data to and from the terminal devices 102via the respective base stations 104 and provides functions such asauthentication, mobility management, charging and so on. Typicalentities in a core network include a Mobility Management Entity, MME,106 and a subscriber database (HSS) 108: these entities facilitate theprovision of communications services to UEs wherever they are locatedwithin the coverage of the network. Access to data services is providedby a serving gateway 112 and a packet data network, PDN, gateway 114.

FIG. 1A also shows elements which extend the network to allow efficientmanagement of machine type communication (MTC) devices. The illustratedcore network 110 incorporates an MTC server 116. An optional MTC gateway120 is also shown in FIG. 1A: such a gateway may provide a hub terminaldevice which is in communication with one or more MTC devices and inturn establishes uplink and/or downlink communication paths with thebase stations 104 on behalf of the connected MTC devices.

The UE 102 has certain functional blocks which provide a receive path,as illustrated in FIG. 1B. Signals in the radio downlink 124 arereceived at an antenna arrangement 142 and sent to a synchronisation anddown-conversion block 132 via a radio frequency receiver unit 130. Theradio frequency receiver unit 130 typically includes a Low NoiseAmplifier (LNA), which amplifies the received signal from the antennaarrangement 142. The synchronisation and down-conversion block 132converts RF signals to baseband (BB) signals. A variety of receiverarchitectures may be adopted to provide suitable down-conversion (forexample direct conversion, super heterodyne etc.). The synchronisationand down-conversion block 132 also typically includes a local oscillator(LO), which re-generates a clock for demodulation, and an Analog toDigital converter (A/D) 1506, which converts analogue signals to digitalsignals for processing in baseband circuitry.

Baseband processing functions are controlled at a controller 140.Synchronised and down-converted digital signals are demodulated in ademodulator unit 134 (for example an inverse fast Fourier transformunit) and passed to an equaliser unit 136. The controller unit 140 takesas input the synchronised and down-converted digital signals as well asthe equalised signals output by the equaliser unit 136. The controllercontrols a reference signal processing unit 146 instructing theidentification of suitable reference signals and, if necessary, thegeneration of virtual reference signals, from the demodulated signalsoutput by the demodulator unit 134. From the radio characteristics ofthe reference signals identified in the reference signal processing unit146, a channel estimator unit 148 generates estimated characteristicsfor all channels in the received signals. The equalizer unit 136 thenuses the channel estimates to generate equalised signals. The equalisedsignals are then passed to protocol circuitry for channel decoding.

The infrastructure equipment, such as the base station 104, has certainfunctional blocks which are required in the preparation of a signal fordownlink 124 transmission, as illustrated in FIG. 1C. In particular, thebase station includes a radio antenna arrangement 144, which transmitsradio signals. Typically more than one antenna element is provided fordiversity/MIMO transmission. A radio frequency block 154 provides thesignal for transmission by the antenna arrangement 144. Typically itwill include an amplifier which applies a gain to the signal fortransmission and an RF transceiver which up converts from BB to RF, asrequired. Baseband circuitry which provides functionality such aschannel coding/decoding, modulation/demodulation, channel estimation,equalization etc. includes a scheduler 152 for scheduling the downlinkdata for a UE based on measured or predetermined radio characteristicsand a controller unit 150, which determines the operation of thescheduler 152.

In mobile telecommunications systems such as those arranged inaccordance with the 3GPP defined Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture,communication between base stations (e.g. eNodeB 104) and communicationsterminals (e.g. UE 102, MTC gateway 120) is conducted over a wirelessair-interface, Uu. Downlink 124 on the Uu interface uses an orthogonalfrequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technology, while uplink 122uses single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA)technology. In both cases, the system bandwidth is divided into aplurality of “subcarriers” (each occupying 15 kHz).

The downlink Uu interface organises resources in time using a “frame”structure. A downlink radio frame is transmitted from an eNode B andlasts 10 ms. As shown in FIG. 2, the downlink radio frame 204 comprisesten subframes 202, each subframe lasting 1 ms. The subframe in turncomprises a predetermined number of “symbols”, which are eachtransmitted over a respective 1/14 ms period. Each symbol comprises apredetermined number of orthogonal subcarriers distributed across thebandwidth of the downlink radio carrier. Here, the horizontal axisrepresents time while the vertical represents frequency.

The smallest allocation of user data for transmission in LTE is a“resource block” comprising twelve sub-carriers transmitted over oneslot (0.5 sub-frame). Each individual box in the sub-frame grid in FIG.3 corresponds to twelve sub-carriers transmitted on one symbol.

FIG. 3 shows, in hatching, resource allocations for four LTE terminals340, 341, 342, 343. For example, the resource allocation 342 for a firstLTE terminal (UE 1) extends over five blocks of twelve sub-carriers(i.e. 60 sub-carriers), the resource allocation 343 for a second LTEterminal (UE2) extends over six blocks of twelve sub-carriers and so on.

Control channel data is transmitted in a control region 300 (indicatedby dotted-shading in FIG. 3) of the sub-frame comprising the first nsymbols of the sub-frame where n can vary between one and three symbolsfor channel bandwidths of 3 MHz or greater and where n can vary betweentwo and four symbols for channel bandwidths of 1.4 MHz. For the sake ofproviding a concrete example, the following description relates to hostcarriers with a channel bandwidth of 3 MHz or greater so the maximumvalue of n will be 3. The data transmitted in the control region 300includes data transmitted on the physical downlink control channel(PDCCH), the physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH) and thephysical HARQ indicator channel (PHICH).

PDCCH contains control data indicating which sub-carriers on whichsymbols of the sub-frame have been allocated to specific LTE terminals.Thus, the PDCCH data transmitted in the control region 300 of thesub-frame shown in FIG. 3 would indicate that UE1 has been allocated theblock of resources identified by reference numeral 342, that UE2 hasbeen allocated the block of resources identified by reference numeral343, and so on.

PCFICH contains control data indicating the size of the control region(typically between one and three symbols, but four symbols beingcontemplated to support 1.4 MHz channel bandwidth).

PHICH contains HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Request) data indicating whetheror not previously transmitted uplink data has been successfully receivedby the network.

Symbols in the central band 310 of the time-frequency resource grid areused for the transmission of information including the primarysynchronisation signal (PSS), the secondary synchronisation signal (SSS)and the physical broadcast channel (PBCH). This central band 310 istypically 72 sub-carriers wide (corresponding to a transmissionbandwidth of 1.08 MHz). The PSS and SSS are synchronisation signals thatonce detected allow an LTE terminal device to achieve framesynchronisation and determine the cell identity of the enhanced Node Btransmitting the downlink signal. The PBCH carries information about thecell, comprising a master information block (MIB) that includesparameters that LTE terminals use to properly access the cell. Datatransmitted to individual LTE terminals on the physical downlink sharedchannel (PDSCH) can be transmitted in other resource elements of thesub-frame. Further explanation of these channels is provided below.

FIG. 3 also shows a region of PDSCH 344 containing system informationand extending over a bandwidth of R344. A conventional LTE frame willalso include reference signals which are discussed further below but notshown in FIG. 3 in the interests of clarity.

The number of sub-carriers in an LTE channel can vary depending on theconfiguration of the transmission network. Typically this variation isfrom 72 sub carriers contained within a 1.4 MHz channel bandwidth to1200 sub-carriers contained within a 20 MHz channel bandwidth (asschematically shown in FIG. 3). As is known in the art, data transmittedon the PDCCH, PCFICH and PHICH is typically distributed on thesub-carriers across the entire bandwidth of the sub-frame to provide forfrequency diversity. Therefore a conventional LTE terminal must be ableto receive the entire channel bandwidth in order to receive and decodethe control region.

As mentioned above, the anticipated widespread deployment of third andfourth generation networks has led to the parallel development of aclass of devices and applications which, rather than taking advantage ofthe high data rates available, instead take advantage of the robustradio interface and increasing ubiquity of the coverage area. Thisparallel class of devices and applications includes MTC devices andso-called machine to machine (M2M) applications, wherein semi-autonomousor autonomous wireless communication devices typically communicate smallamounts of data on a relatively infrequent basis.

Examples of MTC (and M2M) devices include: so-called smart meters which,for example, are located in a customer's house and periodically transmitinformation back to a central MTC server data relating to the customersconsumption of a utility such as gas, water, electricity and so on;“track and trace” applications such as transportation and logisticstracking, road tolling and monitoring systems; remote maintenance andcontrol systems with MTC-enabled sensors, lighting, diagnostics etc.;environment monitoring; point of sales payment systems and vendingmachines; security systems, etc.

Further information on characteristics of MTC-type devices and furtherexamples of the applications to which MTC devices may be applied can befound, for example, in the corresponding standards, such as ETSI TS 122368 V10.530 (2011 July)/3GPP TS 22.368 version 10.5.0 Release 10) [1].

Whilst it can be convenient for a terminal such as an MTC type terminalto take advantage of the wide coverage area provided by a third orfourth generation mobile telecommunication network, there are at presentdisadvantages and challenges to successful deployment. Unlike aconventional third or fourth generation terminal device such as asmartphone, an MTC-type terminal is preferably relatively simple andinexpensive: in addition MTC-devices are often deployed in situationsthat do not afford easy access for direct maintenance orreplacement—reliable and efficient operation can be crucial.Furthermore, while the type of functions performed by the MTC-typeterminal (e.g. collecting and reporting back data) do not requireparticularly complex processing to perform, third and fourth generationmobile telecommunication networks typically employ advanced datamodulation techniques (such as 16QAM or 64QAM) on the radio interfacewhich can require more complex and expensive radio transceivers toimplement.

It is usually justified to include such complex transceivers in asmartphone as a smartphone will typically require a powerful processorto perform typical smartphone type functions. However, as indicatedabove, there is now a desire to use relatively inexpensive and lesscomplex devices to communicate using LTE type networks. In parallel withthis drive to provide network accessibility to devices having differentoperational functionality, e.g. reduced bandwidth operation, there is adesire to optimise the use of the available bandwidth in atelecommunications system supporting such devices.

In many scenarios, providing low capability terminals such as those witha conventional high-performance LTE receiver unit capable of receivingand processing (control) data from an LTE downlink frame across the fullcarrier bandwidth can be overly complex for a device which only needs tocommunicate small amounts of data. This may therefore limit thepracticality of a widespread deployment of low capability MTC typedevices in an LTE network. It is preferable instead to provide lowcapability terminals such as MTC devices with a simpler receiver unitwhich is more proportionate with the amount of data likely to betransmitted to the terminal.

A “virtual carrier” tailored to low capability terminals such as MTCdevices is thus provided within the transmission resources of aconventional OFDM type downlink carrier (i.e. a “host carrier”). Unlikedata transmitted on a conventional OFDM type downlink carrier, datatransmitted on the virtual carrier can be received and decoded withoutneeding to process the full bandwidth of the downlink host OFDM carrier,for at least some part of a sub-frame. Accordingly, data transmitted onthe virtual carrier can be received and decoded using a reducedcomplexity receiver unit.

The term “virtual carrier” corresponds in essence to a narrowbandcarrier for MTC-type devices within a host carrier for an OFDM-basedradio access technology (such as WiMAX or LTE).

The virtual carrier concept is described in a number of co-pendingpatent applications (including GB 1101970.0 [2], GB 1101981.7 [3], GB1101966.8 [4], GB 1101983.3 [5], GB 1101853.8 [6], GB 1101982.5 [7], GB1101980.9 [8] and GB 1101972.6 [9]), the contents of which areincorporated herein by reference. For ease of reference, however, anoverview of certain aspects of the concept of virtual carriers is setout in Annex 1.

FIG. 4 schematically represents an arbitrary downlink subframe accordingto the established LTE standards as discussed above into which aninstance of a virtual carrier 406 has been introduced. The subframe isin essence a simplified version of what is represented in FIG. 3. Thus,the subframe comprises a control region 400 supporting the PCFICH, PHICHand PDCCH channels as discussed above and a PDSCH region 402 forcommunicating higher-layer data (for example user-plane data andnon-physical layer control-plane signalling) to respective terminaldevices, as well as system information, again as discussed above. Forthe sake of giving a concrete example, the frequency bandwidth (BW) ofthe carrier with which the subframe is associated is taken to be 20 MHz.Also schematically shown in FIG. 4 by black shading is an example PDSCHdownlink allocation 404. In accordance with the defined standards, andas discussed above, individual terminal devices derive their specificdownlink allocations 404 for a subframe from PDCCH transmitted in thecontrol region 400 of the subframe.

By contrast with the conventional LTE arrangement, where a subset of theavailable PDSCH resources anywhere across the full PDSCH bandwidth couldbe allocated to a UE in any given subframe, in the T-shaped arrangementillustrated in FIG. 4, MTC devices maybe allocated PDSCH resources onlywithin a pre-established restricted frequency band 406 corresponding toa virtual carrier.

Accordingly, MTC devices each need only buffer and process a smallfraction of the total PDSCH resources contained in the subframe toidentify and extract their own data from that subframe.

The pre-established restricted frequency band used to communicate, e.g.on PDSCH in LTE, from a base station to a terminal device, is thusnarrower than the overall system frequency band (carrier bandwidth) usedfor communicating physical-layer control information, e.g. on PDCCH inLTE. As a result, base stations may be configured to allocate downlinkresources for the terminal device on PDSCH only within the restrictedfrequency band. As the terminal device knows in advance that it willonly be allocated PDSCH resources within the restricted frequency band,the terminal device does not need to buffer and process any PDSCHresources from outside the pre-determined restricted frequency band.

In this example it is assumed the base station and the MTC device haveboth pre-established that data is to be communicated from the basestation to the MTC device only within the restricted frequency banddefined by upper and lower frequencies f1 and f2 (having a bandwidthΔf). In this example the restricted frequency band encompasses thecentral part of the overall system (carrier) frequency band BW. For thesake of a concrete example, the restricted frequency band is assumedhere to have a bandwidth (Δf) of 1.4 MHz and to be centred on theoverall system bandwidth (i.e. f1=fc−Δf/2 and f2=fc+Δf/2, where fc isthe central frequency of the system frequency band). There are variousmechanisms by which the frequency band can be established/shared betweena base station and terminal device and some of these are discussedfurther below.

FIG. 4 represents in shading the portions of each subframe for which theMTC device is arranged to buffer resource elements ready for processing.The buffered part of each subframe comprises a control region 400supporting conventional physical-layer control information, such as thePCFICH, PHICH and PDCCH channels as discussed above, and a restrictedPDSCH region 406. The physical-layer control regions 400 that arebuffered are in the same resources as the physical-layer control regionsbuffered by any conventional UE. However, the PDSCH regions 406 whichare buffered by the MTC device are smaller than the PDSCH regionsbuffered by conventional UEs. This is possible because, as noted above,the MTC devices are allocated PDSCH resources only within a restrictedfrequency band that occupies a small fraction of the total PDSCHresources contained in the subframe.

Accordingly, the MTC device will in the first instance receive andbuffer the entire control region 400 and the entire restricted frequencyband 406 in a subframe. The MTC device will then process the controlregion 400 to decode PDCCH to determine what resources are allocated onPDSCH within the restricted frequency band, and then process the databuffered during PDSCH symbols within the restricted frequency band andextract the relevant higher-layer data therefrom.

In one example LTE-based implementation, each subframe is taken tocomprise 14 symbols (timeslots) with PDCCH transmitted on the firstthree symbols and PDSCH transmitted on the remaining 11 symbols.Furthermore, the wireless telecommunications system is taken in thisexample to operate over a system frequency band of 20 MHz (100 resourceblocks) with a pre-established restricted frequency band of 1.4 MHz (sixresource blocks) defined for communicating with the terminal devicessupporting virtual carrier operation.

As explained above, in OFDM-based mobile communication systems such asLTE, downlink data is dynamically assigned to be transmitted ondifferent sub-carriers on a sub-frame by sub-frame basis. Accordingly,in every sub-frame, the network signals which sub-carriers on whichsymbols contain data relevant to which terminals (i.e. downlinkallocation signalling).

As can be seen from FIG. 3, in a conventional downlink LTE sub-frameinformation regarding which symbols contain data relevant to whichterminals is transmitted on the PDCCH during the first symbol or symbolsof the sub-frame.

It has been proposed to allow the transmission power to be boosted inthe virtual carrier to improve MTC coverage. This is a practicalsuggestion where a considerable proportion of the MTC devices can beassumed to be installed at locations with sub-optimal coverage.

FIG. 5A illustrates a subframe in similar to that in FIG. 4 in which anarrow band virtual carrier 503 has been inserted at a boostedtransmission power. As in FIG. 4, the subframe comprises a controlregion 502 supporting the PCFICH, PHICH and PDCCH channels as discussedabove and a PDSCH region 510,512 for communicating higher-layer data(for example user-plane data and non-physical layer control-planesignalling) to respective terminal devices.

FIG. 5B shows the relative transmission power in the “normal” PDSCHregion 510,512 outside the virtual carrier at a given time, representedas the cut A-A in FIG. 5A. The difference in transmission power betweenthe boosted virtual carrier 503 and the surrounding PDSCH region510,512, X, allows coverage to be increased for MTC devices.

FIG. 6 provides a schematic diagram illustrating the resource elementsin a pair of resource blocks in a downlink radio sub-frame. As notedabove, a sub-frame typically includes three subsets of resourceelements; Data Elements (corresponding to PDSCH) which are the resourceelements containing user data, Control Elements (corresponding to PDCCH,PHICH, and/or PFICH) containing control information, and ReferenceElements (Common Reference Signal—CRS) which are used for channelestimation. Data elements are indicated as rectangles containing theword “Data”; Control elements, with the letters “Cntrl”; and ReferenceElements with the letters “CRS”. As can be seen, the common referencesymbols are inserted at predetermined, periodic, positions in time andfrequency within each resource block of the sub-frame.

The two resource blocks in FIG. 6 represent resource block in thevirtual carrier bandwidth, however resource blocks in other regions ofthe sub-frame have similar constituent resource elements.

FIG. 7A illustrates a section through a subframe at a given time andshows the transmission power as the vertical axis and frequency as thehorizontal axis. Normal PDSCH regions 710,712 surround a narrow bandvirtual carrier 703, which (for simplicity) occupies only 12subcarriers, 1RB. The data resource elements 702 and reference signalresource elements 704 in PDSCH regions 710,712 and the virtual carrierregion 703 are all shown at the same transmission power.

FIG. 7B illustrates a similar section where the data resource elements706 in the virtual carrier region 705 are of higher transmission powerthan data resource elements 702 of the PDSCH regions 710,712. Commonreference signals 704,704′ remain at the same transmission power whetherthey fall within the PDSCH regions 710,712 or the virtual carrier region705.

In the non-power boosted case illustrated in FIG. 7A, the resourceelements carrying data and CRS are transmitted at substantially the samepower.

In the power boosted case, FIG. 7B, only the data resource elements 706can be power boosted. The CRS resource elements 704′ in the virtualcarrier region 705 cannot be power boosted because they will be receivedand used by other UEs (whether they are MTC devices or generic UEs withfull receiver capabilities) within the cell to estimate the channel(hence the name “Common” Reference Signal), not just those that need thepower boosted signal.

As noted above, acquiring the known common reference signal andconducting channel estimation is an important part of demodulation ofthe data signal. If the received power of the CRS is too low, the UE maynot be able to correctly receive the data correctly, regardless ofwhether the data signals are power boosted (as they are in FIG. 7B).

The restriction on varying the transmission power of pilot or referencesignals is known in the field of beamforming Common Reference Signalscan not be beamformed for much the same reason they cannot havedifferent powers at certain frequencies.

In beamforming, a known approach is to insert UE specific referencesignals (illustrated as rectangles with the letters “DMRS”—DemodulationReference Signal in FIG. 8). These specific reference signals can bepower boosted along with the data signal. As these reference signals areused only by the UE that is receiving the power boosted data signal,their presence will not affect other UEs in the cell.

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates the relative transmission powers of aplurality of subcarriers including subcarriers providing a narrow bandvirtual carrier 805 with power boosting of data symbols 806 within thevirtual carrier and the insertion of user specific reference symbols808. As for FIGS. 7A and 7B, FIG. 8 illustrates a section through asubframe at a given time and shows the transmission power as thevertical axis and frequency as the horizontal axis. Normal PDSCH regions810,812 surround a narrow band virtual carrier 805, which again occupiesonly 12 subcarriers, 1RB. The data 802 and reference signal resourceelements 804 in PDSCH regions 810,812 are all shown at the sametransmission power, the data resource elements 806 in the virtualcarrier region 805 are of higher transmission power that those of thePDSCH regions 810,812 while common reference signals 804′ remain at thesame transmission power as they do in the PDSCH regions 810,812. Inplace of selected data resource elements, the common reference signals804′ are augmented by specific reference signals 808. The specificreference signals are raised to the same (higher) transmission power asthe data resource elements 806.

There is a cost to the insertion of specific reference symbols as theyreplace data resource elements. Furthermore, they provide no additionalbenefit to any UE other than the UEs for which a power-boosted referencesignal is required.

Finally, it has been realised that (non-boosted) common referencesignals are adequate for channel estimation purposes alongsidetransmission power boosted data resource elements up to a certainthreshold power level. Below this threshold level, data can betransmitted at higher power (for increased coverage) without theinsertion of specific reference signals being needed for channelestimation.

This threshold power level differs depending upon the precise modulationand coding scheme (MCS) applied to the transmitted resource elements.The MCS has a bearing on the tolerance of error in channel estimation.Thus an MCS such as QPSK leads to a channel estimation process that ismore tolerant of error that 64QAM or 16QAM, say. Table 1 belowillustrates the differences in the threshold power levels for selectedMCS reflecting the different degrees of error tolerance in channelestimation using the respective MCS.

TABLE 1 QPSK 16QAM 64QAM Power Boost 9 6 3 Threshold [dB]

Consequently, it is beneficial to determine whether insertion ofspecific reference signals is likely to be of significant advantage.This determination is made depending on the level of the power boostingrequired and type of modulation used for the data signals.

FIG. 9 shows an example of the operation of infrastructure equipment indetermining whether to insert user specific reference symbols.

In cases where the required level of power boosting is low (i.e. the UEis nearby and the transmission power of the common reference signals anddata resource elements are sufficiently close) and when the modulationused for data is more tolerant towards channel estimation errors, theeNB may choose not to insert specific reference symbols. By contrast, incases where the required level of power boost is high and whenmodulation used for data is less tolerant towards channel estimationerrors, the infrastructure equipment (e.g. an eNB) should insertspecific reference signals to exploit fully the gains of power boosting.

The presence of specific reference symbols (DMRS) needs to be signalledto the UE for which the power boost is required, so that the UE knowswhich reference signals are available for use in demodulating the datasignal. Signalling of the level of power boost may be achieved in PDCCHsignalling.

The infrastructure equipment firstly determines the level of power boostrequired for transmissions to the UE. In addition, the modulation andcoding scheme for the data is determined (step S905).

A table such as Table 1 is consulted to extract a threshold power levelvalue that corresponds to the MCS determined in step S905. Next, it isdetermined whether the required level of power boost exceeds thethreshold power level for the determined MCS (step S910).

Where the power level does exceed the respective threshold value, theinfrastructure equipment inserts specific reference signals at highertransmission power (S915): this higher transmission power mayconveniently be substantially the same power as the power boosted dataresource elements.

Where the power level does not exceed the respective threshold value,the infrastructure equipment transmits only data resource elements atthe boosted transmission power (S920).

Finally, in this example, the infrastructure equipment signals the factthat specific reference signals have been inserted (S930). The samesignalling conveniently indicates where in the sub-frame grid they areinserted and/or what their transmission power level is. The boosted datachannel PDSCH is then transmitted alongside (boosted specific referencesignals) and non-boosted common reference signals.

The reader will readily appreciate that in an alternative arrangement,the infrastructure equipment may elect to insert specific referencesignals regardless of any perceived benefit at modest power boostlevels.

The guaranteed presence of specific reference signals in addition tocommon reference signals leads to a further consideration: if thereference signals (of either type) are reliable, the UE should inprinciple be able to conduct a more accurate channel estimation byvirtue of the presence of additional reference points (compared tocommon reference signals alone). However, if some of the referencepoints are too weak, then combining these unreliable reference pointsmay degrade the total channel estimation accuracy to a level below whatcan be achieved using the specific reference signals alone.

In FIG. 10, a method is illustrated whereby a user equipment (UE)decides whether to use specific reference signals alone or a combinationof specific reference signals and common reference signals to conductchannel estimation, depending on the power boosting level.

FIG. 10 shows schematically the operation of the UE in determiningwhether to use only the user specific reference symbols or a combinationof common and user specific reference symbols to generate channelestimates.

Here, the UE receives signalling from the infrastructure equipmentindicating the level of power boosting in data resource elementtransmissions (step S1010).

The UE then compares the level of power boosting to a predeterminedthreshold value (step S1020). Where the level of power boosting liesbelow (or on) the predetermined threshold value, it is assumed that thecommon reference signals (CRS) represent suitably reliable referencepoints and the channel estimation process uses both common and specificreference signals in the generation of channel estimates (step S1022).

Where the level of power boosting exceeds the predetermined thresholdvalue, it is assumed that the common reference signals (CRS) areunreliable as reference points and the channel estimation processdiscards common reference signals, using specific reference signalsalone in the generation of channel estimates (step 1024).

Finally, whether common reference signals are used or discarded, theresulting channel estimates are used by the UE in demodulating thereceived data symbols (PDSCH)—step 1030.

In alternative implementations, the UE may determine the power boostinglevel independently by measuring the power levels of the received commonreference signals and specific reference signals. Thus step S1010, maybe replaced by an alternative step of determining the level of powerboosting by determining the relative difference between the receivedpower levels and extrapolating from knowledge of the common referencesignal transmission power.

In further alternative implementations, the relative contribution ofcommon reference signals and specific reference signals is notdetermined in a binary manner Instead the respective reference signalsare weighed differently to one another when calculating the channelestimation, the weights applied depending on the relative power levels.

The skilled reader will appreciate that while much of the precedingdiscussion is cast in terms of power boosting the various embodiments ofthe invention apply equally to situations where transmission power iscontinuously adjusted to ensure constant receive power levels at thereceiving UE. Power boosting strictly speaking refers to theinstantaneous increase of transmission power to transmit signal(typically in an attempt to send data to “hard to reach” UEs; thecontinuous adjustment of transmission power may be considered a form ofpower control.

The following numbered clauses define further example aspects andfeatures of the present technique:

1. A method of receiving data at a communications device from a wirelesscommunications network, the method comprising:

receiving data symbols transmitted from the wireless communicationsnetwork at the communications device via a wireless access interface,the wireless access interface providing a plurality of communicationsresource elements across a system bandwidth, which are divided in timeinto a plurality of time divided radio frames,

the wireless access interface providing within the system bandwidth, afirst section of communications resource elements within a firstfrequency bandwidth for allocation preferably to reduced capabilitycommunications devices to receive signals representing the datatransmitted by the infrastructure equipment within the first frequencybandwidth forming a virtual carrier, the reduced capabilitycommunications devices each having a receiver bandwidth which is greaterthan or equal to the first frequency bandwidth but less than the systembandwidth,

wherein receiving the data symbols comprises

receiving the data symbols from a first subset of resource elements inone or more of the radio frames, and

receiving common reference symbols from a second subset of resourceelements in each radio frame, the common reference symbols having beentransmitted with a first transmission power and the data symbols havingbeen transmitted via the virtual carrier with a second transmissionpower, and wherein the method further comprises

receiving specific reference symbols which have been transmitted via theresource elements of said virtual carrier at the second transmissionpower;

determining a difference in power between the second transmission powerand the first transmission power, and

if the difference in power substantially exceeds a threshold, generatingchannel estimates using only the specific reference symbols receivedfrom the virtual carrier.

2. A method according to clause 1, wherein data symbols outside thevirtual carrier are transmitted at the first transmission power.

3. A method according to clause 1 or 2, wherein if the difference inpower does not exceed the threshold, generating channel estimates usingboth the common reference symbols and the specific reference symbols,thereby improving the channel estimates by comparison with the channelestimation procedure using common reference symbols alone.

4. A method according to clause 3, wherein the step of generatingchannel estimates includes weighting the common reference symbols andthe specific reference symbols differently depending upon the relativetransmission powers in each symbol.

5. A method according to any preceding clause, wherein the difference intransmission power results from an instantaneous increases oftransmission power within the virtual carrier, thereby the transmissionpower being boosted for specific communications devices.

6. A communications device for generating channel estimates from datareceived from an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wirelesscommunications network, the device comprising:

a receiver unit which operates to receive data via a wireless accessinterface, the wireless access interface providing a plurality ofcommunications resource elements across a system bandwidth, which aredivided in time to form a plurality of time divided radio frames, and

a controller configured to control the receiver unit to receive, withinthe system bandwidth, a first section of communications resourceelements within a first frequency bandwidth for allocation preferably toreduced capability communications devices to receive signalsrepresenting the data transmitted by the infrastructure equipment withinthe first frequency bandwidth forming a virtual carrier, the reducedcapability communications devices each having a receiver bandwidth whichis greater than or equal to the first frequency bandwidth but less thanthe system bandwidth,

wherein the controller in combination with the receiver unit areconfigured

to receive data symbols in a first subset of the resource elements inone or more of the radio frames, and

to receive common reference symbols in a second subset of the resourceelements in each radio frame, said second subset having a firsttransmission power; and

wherein the data symbols in the virtual carrier have been transmitted ata second transmission power,

wherein the controller in combination with the receiver unit are furtherconfigured to receive specific reference symbols that are transmitted atthe second transmission power in the resource elements of the virtualcarrier; and

wherein the controller is further configured to determine a differencein power between the second transmission power and the firsttransmission power, and, if the difference in power substantiallyexceeds a threshold, to generate channel estimates for frequencieswithin the first section using only the specific reference symbols.

REFERENCES

-   [1] ETSI TS 122 368 V10.530 (2011 July)/3GPP TS 22.368 version    10.5.0 Release 10)-   [2] UK patent application GB 1101970.0-   [3] UK patent application GB 1101981.7-   [4] UK patent application GB 1101966.8-   [5] UK patent application GB 1101983.3-   [6] UK patent application GB 1101853.8-   [7] UK patent application GB 1101982.5-   [8] UK patent application GB 1101980.9-   [9] UK patent application GB 1101972.6

1. A method of receiving data at a communications device from a wirelesscommunications network, the method comprising: receiving data symbolstransmitted from the wireless communications network at thecommunications device via a wireless access interface, the wirelessaccess interface providing a plurality of communications resourceelements across a system bandwidth, which are divided in time into aplurality of time divided radio frames, the wireless access interfaceproviding within the system bandwidth, a first section of communicationsresource elements within a first frequency bandwidth for allocationpreferably to reduced capability communications devices to receivesignals representing the data transmitted by the infrastructureequipment within the first frequency bandwidth forming a virtualcarrier, the reduced capability communications devices each having areceiver bandwidth which is greater than or equal to the first frequencybandwidth but less than the system bandwidth, wherein receiving the datasymbols comprises receiving the data symbols from a first subset ofresource elements in one or more of the radio frames, and receivingcommon reference symbols from a second subset of resource elements ineach radio frame, the common reference symbols having been transmittedwith a first transmission power and the data symbols having beentransmitted via the virtual carrier with a second transmission power,and wherein the method further comprises receiving specific referencesymbols which have been transmitted via the resource elements of saidvirtual carrier at the second transmission power; determining adifference in power between the second transmission power and the firsttransmission power, and if the difference in power substantially exceedsa threshold, generating channel estimates using only the specificreference symbols received from the virtual carrier.
 2. A method asclaimed in claim 1, wherein data symbols outside the virtual carrier aretransmitted at the first transmission power.
 3. A method as claimed inclaim 1, wherein if the difference in power does not exceed thethreshold, generating channel estimates using both the common referencesymbols and the specific reference symbols, thereby improving thechannel estimates by comparison with the channel estimation procedureusing common reference symbols alone.
 4. A method as claimed in claim 3,wherein the step of generating channel estimates includes weighting thecommon reference symbols and the specific reference symbols differentlydepending upon the relative transmission powers in each symbol.
 5. Amethod as claimed in claim 1, wherein the difference in transmissionpower results from an instantaneous increases of transmission powerwithin the virtual carrier, thereby the transmission power being boostedfor specific communications devices.
 6. A communications device forgenerating channel estimates from data received from an infrastructureequipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the devicecomprising: a receiver unit which operates to receive data via awireless access interface, the wireless access interface providing aplurality of communications resource elements across a system bandwidth,which are divided in time to form a plurality of time divided radioframes, and a controller configured to control the receiver unit toreceive, within the system bandwidth, a first section of communicationsresource elements within a first frequency bandwidth for allocationpreferably to reduced capability communications devices to receivesignals representing the data transmitted by the infrastructureequipment within the first frequency bandwidth forming a virtualcarrier, the reduced capability communications devices each having areceiver bandwidth which is greater than or equal to the first frequencybandwidth but less than the system bandwidth, wherein the controller incombination with the receiver unit are configured to receive datasymbols in a first subset of the resource elements in one or more of theradio frames, and to receive common reference symbols in a second subsetof the resource elements in each radio frame, said second subset havinga first transmission power; and wherein the data symbols in the virtualcarrier have been transmitted at a second transmission power, whereinthe controller in combination with the receiver unit are furtherconfigured to receive specific reference symbols that are transmitted atthe second transmission power in the resource elements of the virtualcarrier; and wherein the controller is further configured to determine adifference in power between the second transmission power and the firsttransmission power, and, if the difference in power substantiallyexceeds a threshold, to generate channel estimates for frequencieswithin the first section using only the specific reference symbols. 7-8.(canceled)